He was quickly successful and admired, particularly for his man-management, the skill he had felt limited scope to develop under Mourinho. "Most of all, he was very good at dealing face to face with the players," remembers Lito Fernandes Aguair, the senior striker at Academica at the time. "He was young, of course, but was able to give off the impression of experience, and he prepared us very well indeed. For me he's remained a good friend. You'll find he still has a lot of friends from Academica."
Likewise at Porto, where Villas-Boas is among invitees to a dinner on Saturday to celebrate 120 years of a club he led, in his first full season as a coach, to the 2010-11 treble of Europa League, Portuguese Cup and domestic championship, in the last of which they suffered no defeats all season.
It was when Porto, Mourinho's old club, gave Villas-Boas the senior coaching job that direct contact with Mourinho ceased. Villas-Boas, whom Mourinho yesterday called a "kid", had anticipated hostility from his former boss. Anybody who works with Mourinho for seven years knows his adversarial habits, and that one of them is pointed criticism towards other coaches who have ever occupied the same posts as he has.
Mourinho used to regularly taunt Claudio Ranieri, his predecessor at Chelsea, when Ranieri worked at Juventus and Roma – rivals to Mourinho's Inter – about their relative career records. In Spain, Mourinho belittled Manuel Pellegrini, whose dismissal by Madrid created the vacancy for him, by saying: "If I get sacked by Madrid I wouldn't go on to Malaga, I'd go on to a big club." Avram Grant, Mourinho's successor at Chelsea, and Rafael Benítez, a former Inter and Chelsea coach, are also familiar with the modus operandi.
Villas-Boas encountered it shortly after he started at Porto. Mourinho, consulted by the daily, Record, said: "People will ask why Porto chose someone who has never been a coach, apart from three or months at Academica. You can't make comparisons with me because when I started at Porto, I had experience out on the pitch as a coach."
In fact, you could make comparisons. Their body of experience was almost identical: Porto took on a Villa-Boas who had 30 competitive matches under his belt at Academica; Porto had taken on, in 2002, a Mourinho who had overseen 31 matches as head coach of Benfica – briefly – and then Uniao de Leiria. Both won trebles at Porto, both moved on to Chelsea.
Lito, the former Academica ally, says: "I'm really not surprised Andre is now successful in English football." But those who knew Villas-Boas as part of Team Mou recall that breaking out of it had been a gamble. "He had a good life, doing what he did for Mourinho," recalls Ricardo Carvalho, the defender Mourinho worked with at three clubs and who appreciated Villas-Boas's briefings at Chelsea and Porto. "He gave up that security, and had the self-confidence to take that risk."
He gave up the comradeship, too. Others who have shared in Mourinho's success and spread their wings have not. Steve Clarke and Brendon Rodgers, who both coached at Chelsea between 2004 and 2007, hear frequent nods of approval and encouragement from their old chief. Baltemar Brito, part of Team Mou for six years through Porto and Chelsea until he decided to go solo, remains in touch with Mourinho. Brito spent just a few weeks coaching the Lisbon club Belenenses. He then went to a club in Libya just as the uprising there was gathering momentum, a marginally more perilous gig than being an ex-friend of Jose Mourinho.
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